Saturday, November 28, 2015

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I was lucky enough to spend it at my brother's home with his family. It's so great to have a sibling close by now. I made butterflake rolls, my grandmother's recipe and a Thanksgiving tradition, to share with everyone. They are so good! I wanted to take a little hostess gift, since my brother and sister-in-law were doing most of the cooking, and I made a tag to accompany it.

The images are from a darling set by Taylored Expressions called If Turkeys Could Talk. I stamped and colored the turkey with Copic markers on white cardstock and cut it out. I cut the tag from white cardstock using the Tag Sale: Quilted die by Papertrey Ink, along with the narrow banner from Dark Chocolate cardstock. The sentiments were stamped in black ink.

The tag was quick to assemble once the turkey was done. It turned out really cute! Not to mention, the tag dressed up the bottle of sparkling juice very nicely. My sister-in-law loved it! :)

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

It's time for the monthly Papertrey Ink blog hop! I've missed the last few, but I managed to get a card made today. I got stuck partway through, but a little break to watch some Doctor Who got the inspiration flowing again. The Doctor fixes everything. lol My kids and I are enjoying the start of Thanksgiving vacation!

Obviously, the picture inspired my use of an ornament. We were given the color combo of silver, Hawaiian Shores, Tropical Teal and Simply Chartreuse against pops of crisp white. Challenging to say the least! Am I the only one who struggles with color combos?
After drawing some pencil guidelines with a ruler, I stamped the sentiment "Celebrate the reason for the season" repeatedly on a diagonal to create my background on white cardstock. The sentiment is from Vintage Ornaments by Papertrey Ink and I used Hawaiian Shores ink. I then randomly stamped tiny snowflakes from Snowflake Sparkle with silver ink.

I cut an ornament from Hawaiian Shores cardstock using the Vintage Ornament dies. I stamped the tiny nativity images from Petite Places: Nativity on the ornament with black ink. Then I added glittery dimensional sparkle with Silver Stickles along the top of the ornament and on the bottom tip. On the little loop, I sponged silver ink. (note to self...next time do that before the Stickles)

I stamped several pine branches from Tinsel & Tags Sprigs using Simply Chartreuse ink and three berry clusters using Tropical Teal ink. All were die cut with the matching dies. I layered them on my card to mimic a swag. I looped a narrow piece of silver ribbon to hang the ornament.

I cut two Wonderful Words: Holiday dies out of white cardstock, layered them together for dimension, and rubbed them with silver ink. It adds a nice subtle silver tone to match the snowflakes. I assembled everything on a Tropical Teal card base.

I really like how this turned out. Fun non-traditional colors! Check out other cards for the blog hop here.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

I have a weakness for snowflakes. Snowmen too. I just love wintry images. I purchased the Festive Flurry set from Stampin' Up last year along with the matching dies, but hadn't used them. Yesterday, I was in the mood to make a simple card and these large gorgeous snowflakes are perfect for that.

On a white card base, I adhered a strip of scalloped Going Gray cardstock and a strip of Winter Frost dsp. I embossed the snowflake with silver embossing powder, one of the quickest ways to add lots of impact to a card. Then I cut it with the matching die and popped it up with a bit of foam tape. I stamped the sentiment from Holiday Button Bits by Papertrey Ink in Basic Gray ink.

I could easily make a lot of these. It's a quick design, but still very elegant!

Saturday, November 7, 2015

This is not my original design. I wanted to clarify that right off! I CASE'd a card by Paula Dobson found here. I loved the simple elegance of her design. I only made small changes and that was to add glitter (naturally!) and use a different mat color and sentiment.

I stamped the large poinsettia from Joyful Christmas by Stampin' Up over the white strip and the Pinefeather card base at the same time. It left a small gap between the pieces due to the cardstock thickness, but that was easily covered by the black cardstock mat.

I colored the flower with Copic markers and added Golden Rod Stickles to the stamens. Because. Glitter. Sparkle. Glitter is a necessary element for Christmas. lol I was thinking of all the silk poinsettias in the craft stores. Very few come without glitter. :)

I used a large Joy sentiment from Merry Wishes by Verve Stamps. I love the flourish-y font. Then it was just a simple matter of gluing everything together! I may make a few more of these to have on hand for Christmas cards because it's perfect for mailing.